AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right. The other day at the beach, I got to talk with Romina.”
“About what?”
“About her father.”
“Oh.” Yeah, there wasn’t much to say. “Did she say anything?”
“Not much, the only thing she knows is that he – I – speak English. I jumped the gun and told her I know the man. I didn’t tell her it was me. I figured that was the kind of talk you’d want to have together.”
“Yeah, I guess. I always knew there was going to come a day when Romina would ask me point blank who her father is and why he wasn’t around, because she is naturally curious, but I thought it would happen when she’s older. If you think I have some big reveal speech ready, I don’t.”
“It needs to be now,” I said as my fist tightened around the glass of whiskey. “She thinks I’ve left her, Salva. Romina believes her father doesn’t like children and that’s why he is not here.”
Salvatrice gaped at me, but even like that she was gloriously beautiful under the pink sky of a late sunset.
“I never told her that, Roman.”
“I know. I know, but that’s how she feels and it’s fucking killing me. That’s my kid. She’s the daughter I wanted so badly. I can’t let her think she’s not loved, God damn it.”
Salva sipped some water and then laid back in her chair.
“We’d never talked about kids before. I didn’t know you had such strong feelings about them.”
“My ring was on your finger. What did you expect?”
“Marriage doesn’t automatically mean children. I know I wasn’t ready for a child. Romina changed everything.”
I couldn’t bite my tongue, so I just asked something that was on my mind from the first time I found out we had a daughter.
“Do you regret it?”
“Having her? No! Remy is the best thing that ever happened to me, I just didn’t know it when I found out I was pregnant.”
“But do you regret having her with me?”
She flinched in her chair.
“Roman,” she whispered, “No. I don’t love what you are, it terrifies me, but I loved you. You gave me my daughter and that’s something I could never regret.”
Heard that right there? Loved? What a bunch of bullshit.
“Stop speaking in past tense, Salvatrice. I know you better than anyone else ever did. You still look at me like you always did, you moan when I touch you, and burn under my lips. It’s now, baby. It’s all happening now.”
“Oh, Roman, it doesn’t matter. You have to let us go.”
Us? I’ll let us go when I’m dead and it was hard to kill Roman motherfucking Stefani. Many tried and failed already.
“This leads me to the second part of our conversation. I made a promise to Romina and I fully intend to keep it. I promised her I’ll take her to the states to meet her father.”
“What are you saying?”
I emptied the rest of my whiskey in one gulp.
“I wanna take her home. I want to take you home.”
“Roman, I can’t. I can’t return to New York. That city is not my home anymore.”
“The city doesn’t fucking matter, Salvatrice, I am your home. Romina is my child; I need to have her by my side and I want the people in my life to know her. She has two uncles and two aunts that would love to meet her and spoil the hell out of her.”
